NXT Takeover VI
NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn was a professional wrestling and WWE Network event produced by WWE in the NXT TakeOver series which took place on August 22, 2015 and is the 293rd episode of NXT. The NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn event is produced by NXT, and was streamed live on the WWE Network. The event took place in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, a day before SummerSlam that was held in the same venue. This was the first NXT TakeOver held outside of Full Sail University; WWE promoted it as "action featuring the next generation of WWE ... on the biggest stage yet". Starting with NXT Arrival on February 12, 2014 WWE's developmental league NXT has held major shows broadcast live on the WWE network, with the August event being the seventh event in the series, and the first since NXT Arrival to be a three hour long special compared to the two-hour time limit on all previous NXT TakeOver shows. The main event of the show is slated to be a Ladder match for the NXT Championship with reigning champion Finn Bálor defending the title against former champion Kevin Owens, in a rematch from The Beast in the East show where Bálor won the championship. Matches for the NXT Women's Championship and the NXT Tag Team Championship was also scheduled for the show. NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn was the first WWE promoted event appearance of Japanese Jushin Thunder Liger who made a one-time appearance on the show, facing off against Tyler Breeze. The show also marked the NXT in-ring debut of Apollo Crews, formerly Uhaa Nation, who started working for WWE/NXT during the summer of 2015. It has not been verified which of the planned ten matches would be part of the actual NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn broadcast, if any of them took place during the 30 minute pre-show or if some would be "dark matches" exclusively for the fans in the Barclays Center. Production Background The NXT TakeOver series of professional wrestling shows started on May 29, 2014 as the WWE developmental league NXT TakeOver. In subsequent months the "TakeOver" moniker became the brand used by NXT and WWE for all of their NXT live specials as they held NXT TakeOver: Fatal 4-Way, NXT TakeOver: R Evolution, NXT TakeOver: Rival and finally NXT TakeOver: Unstoppable at three to four month intervals. In July, 2015 WWE announced that their latest NXT TakeOver show would take place on August 22, 2015, the day before the 2015 SummerSlam show and would be in same location as SummerSlam, the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York City, New York. This would make the first NXT TakeOver held outside of the Full Sail University arena in Winter Park, Florida. NXT promoted the show with the tag line "action featuring the next generation of WWE ... on the biggest stage yet" referring to the 13,000+ capacity of the Barclay Center compared to the 400 seat Full Sail University or the various the arenas NXT had held shows at in the United States that generally could accommodate a couple of thousand spectators at most. The show was originally announced as a two-hour special like all previous NXT TakeOver shows, with a 30-minute pre-show. In mid August the show was expanded to three hours instead to accommodate additional matches. With the announcement of the expanded air time NXT and WWE also announced five matches that had not been revealed previously, not indicating which of these matches, if any, might not be shown as part of the WWE Network broadcast. Storylines NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn featured professional wrestling matches involving different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines that play out on the WWE NXT television program prior to the show. Wrestlers portrayed faces (those who portray the "good guys") or heels (the "bad guys") as they followed a series of events that built tension and culminated in a match or a series of matches. In early 2015 Finn Bálor entered into a NXT Championship number one contender's tournament, defeating Curtis Axel and then Hideo Itami in the semi-finals on 4 February. The finals took place at NXT TakeOver: Rival, and saw Bálor defeate Adrian Neville to become the number one contender to the NXT Championship. Bálor would then go on to face then-champion Kevin Owens a few weeks later but lost the match for the NXT title, after injuring his knee. At NXT TakeOver: Unstoppable in May, Bálor defeated Tyler Breeze to once again become the number one contender. Bálor received his title shot on July 4 at The Beast in the East in Tokyo, Japan, where he defeated Owens to become the new NXT Champion. In the weeks following "Beast in the East" it was announced that Owens would get his championship rematch at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn and that the match would be a ladder match. In the weeks following the announcement of NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn, Tyler Breeze would often complain to on screen NXT General Manager William Regal that he "wanted competition", which Regal later announced in the form of New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) wrestler Jushin Thunder Liger. The unusual deal between the two promotions had come about when WWE approached NJPW about bringing Liger in for the event as a special guest, which was accepted by NJPW. On the January 28 episode of NXT Blake and Murphy defeated the Lucha Dragons to win the NXT Tag Team Championship for the first time. Over the summer of 2015 the team known as The Vaudevillains (Aiden English and Simon Gotch) started to push for the team to get a match against Blake and Murphy for the tag team championship, strengthening their argument when they defeated Colin Cassady and Enzo Amore to be named the number one contenders. They would later lose the match to Blake and Murphy. Bayley returned to action on the July 22 episode of NXT, after taking some time off to recover from a broken hand. In her return match she defeated Emma, after which she announced that her goal was to become the next NXT Women's Champion. To prove her point Bayley then challenged Charlotte to a match, which Bayley won. On the August 12 episode of NXT, Bayley defeated Becky Lynch become the #1 contender to Sasha Banks' NXT Women's Championship, earning her a match at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn. The wrestler known as Uhaa Nation signed a WWE contract on in early 2015 and on April 6 he reported to the WWE Performance Center, the home of NXT. Uhaa made his first televised appearance on the May 6 episode of NXT, presenting him as signing an NXT contract, at the result of NXT General Manager William Regal. This was followed by a vignette promoting his upcoming debut. Uhaa started working NXT house shows the following month, retaining the Uhaa Nation ring name. On August 5, it was announced that Uhaa would be known under the ring name "Apollo Crews", and that he would be making his televised NXT debut on August 22 at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn. His opponent was later identified as Tye Dillinger and the match was announced as the sixth match of the actual NXT TakeOver broadcast. Summary Match Preview Results ; ; *Jushin Thunder Liger defeated Tyler Breeze (8:42) *The Vaudevillains (Aiden English & Simon Gotch) (w/ Blue Pants) defeated Blake and Murphy (w/ Alexa Bliss) © to win the NXT Tag Team Championship (10:16) *Apollo Crews defeated Tye Dillinger (4:44) *Samoa Joe defeated Baron Corbin by submission (10:10) *Bayley defeated Sasha Banks © to win the NXT Women's Championship (18:22) *Finn Bálor © defeated Kevin Owens in a Ladder match to retain the NXT Championship (21:23) Other on-screen talent See also *List of NXT pay-per-view events External links * NXT Takeover VI results at CAGEMATCH.net * NXT Takeover VI results at WWE.com * NXT Takeover VI pre-show on WWE Network * NXT Takeover VI on WWE Network Category:NXT Takeover Category:NXT Wrestling pay-per-view events